Singaporeans and permanent residents opening bank accounts with OCBC, UOB, DBS and Standard Chartered no longer have to key in details, such as NRIC number and address, or submit physical documents to verify the data.

Instead, they can consent to having the details pulled digitally from MyInfo, a Government-backed digital vault of their personal data, launched in May last year (2016). The change takes effect on Wednesday (May 3).

By next year (2018), banking customers can also tap on MyInfo when applying for home loans or credit cards online.

Created by the Government Technology Agency (GovTech) and the Ministry of Finance, MyInfo pulls data - such as a person's name, NRIC number and registered address - from seven public agencies.

"Not only will this save time, data entry errors will be reduced too," said Mr Peter Ong, head of Civil Service, at the opening of the second annual Digital Government Exchange (DGX) 2017 at the Asian Civilisations Museum on Wednesday (May 4).

Data in the consolidated repository - which has 145,000 citizen and PR sign-ups so far - have been used to fill in digital forms when applying for or renewing work permits for domestic helpers, and applying for public housing.

To date, 19 e-government services are linked to MyInfo, but there are plans to increase this to more than 150 e-government services by next year.

The Government also aims to expand the use of MyInfo to the insurance sector, said Mr Ong.